Concentrate on body fat, not pounds

Well, the scale reads the same as it did three months ago. And five months ago, too. But you
know what, that’s fine.

Here’s the number I’m focusing on: 21.88%. That’s my body fat. One year ago, it was 32. Five
months ago, it was 25. That’s progress.

If you haven’t had your body fat measured, I highly recommend it over stepping on the bathroom
scale. It’s much more important to know how much lean muscle mass you have versus fat. Read
this article from bodybuilding.com to know why.

I weigh 158 pounds. Yes, I just shared that number that so many women don’t want anyone to know.
What, you don’t have some idea just by looking at me? Anyway, in August 2012, 39.79 of those pounds
were fat. In October, that number shrunk to 35.4. As of last Monday, it was down slightly at 34.79.
So I’ve lost five pounds of fat since August. HUGE.

A good body fat percentage for men is between 11-18, depending on age (higher as you age). Over
24 is considered poor. For women, the number is slightly higher, with a good number between 16-23,
depending on age. Over 32 is poor. So at my age (44), 18-21 is good. My goal is 20.

There are a number of ways to get your body fat measured. The most accurate is the
hydrostatic process, where you are essentially weighed in water.
Here’s what
bodybuilding.com says about that: “The density of body fat is less than that of water, therefore
contributing to the buoyancy of the body, as does air in the lungs. Muscle and bone tissue have a
greater density than that of water and can cause a body to sink, therefore an individual with
greater fat free mass but the same overall body mass, will weigh more in water due to the higher
body density and lower percentage body fat.”

However, not many of us have access to such a method.

Another popular way to measure body fat is with
calipers. Most trainers will do this; it’s the method my trainer uses. It’s
perhaps the closest in accuracy to the hydrostatic method.

Most gyms have handheld
body fat analyzers where you plug in your age, height and weight, then hold it
straight out in front of you while it reads your body fat. Problem with these is they’re not
terribly accurate. However, if that’s all you’ve got you’ll at least know how your body fat has
changed over time. So, if you did this three months ago and it read 28, and now it reads 25, you
know that you’ve lost 3% body fat regardless of how accurate the numbers are. In my experience,
these read lower than calipers.